A Journey Into Astronomy

Instruments

Before 1400

The astrolab and octant are the predecessors of the sextant.

Instruments
Observatories

Before 1400

For thousands of years, native people use the stars to navigate and to monitor the passage of time. Stars are also the inspiration for native legends, which are passed down from generation to generation.

Observatories
Instruments

Before 1400

The Assyrians are likely the first to use lenses to magnify objects, probably around 1,500 BC.

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Observatories

1497

By exploring Newfoundland, John Cabot becomes the first known European to set foot on Canadian soil. Like all explorers of his time, he navigates using the stars.

Observatories
Observatories

1535

Jacques Cartier explores the continental interior. He finds the mouth of the Saint-Lawrence during the Perseid meteor shower.

Observatories
Instruments

1540

Leonard Digges constructs the first telescope using lenses.

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Observatories

1618

Jesuits record the first astronomical observations made in Canada.

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Observatories

1634

Astronomy becomes an official task assigned to the Engineer-in-Chief and Land Surveyor for the New France colony in Quebec.

Observatories
Observatories

1646

Jean Bourdon is the first Canadian to own a telescope.

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Astronomers

1667

Louis XIV commands all roads in the capital of Paris to be lit at night in order to combat thefts and other crimes.

Astronomers
Instruments

1669

Rasmus Bartholin publishes the first article on the splitting of light rays by Icelandic spar.

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Instruments

1672

In France, Laurent Cassegrain invents a new type of reflecting telescope.

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Observatories

1751

An engraving showing the image of sky observers outdoors with an astronomical instrument at the Fortress of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. It is likely that a temporary observatory existed for a short time in the fortress.

Observatories
Astronomers

1792

William Murdoch invents the natural gas lamp and cities in Britain begin to light their streets using natural gas.

Astronomers
Instruments

1816

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce succeeds in making the first photograph on paper.

Instruments
Instruments

1836

British astronomer John Frederick William Herschel invents the photometer.

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Observatories

1846

Dr. Charles Smallwood establishes an observatory at Saint-Martin on Quebec’s Île Jésus (now “Laval”).

Observatories
Observatories

1849

Dr. James Toldervy of Fredericton, New Brunswick, creates an observatory in his garden near the Saint John River.

Observatories
Instruments

1850

American astronomer William Cranch Bond and photographer John Adams Whipple produce the first photograph of a star when they take this daguerreotype of Vega.

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1850

The Quebec City Observatory is established on the Plains of Abraham.

Observatories
Astronomers

1854

William Frederick King is born.

Astronomers
Observatories

1856

The Kingston Observatory is established in London, Ontario.

Observatories
Instruments

1859

German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and German physicist Gustav Robert Kirchhoff invent the first spectroscope.

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Observatories

1863

The McGill University Observatory is established in Montreal, Quebec.

Observatories
Observatories

1873

The Charles Blackman Observatory is established in Montreal, Quebec.

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Instruments

1879

American inventor George Eastman (who would go on to found the Eastman-Kodak company in 1892) builds a machine for coating photographic plates with emulsion, which allows for the mass production of photographs.

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Observatories

1879

The Woodstock College Observatory is established in Hamilton, Ontario.

Observatories
Observatories

1879

Edison makes a major improvement on the electric light bulb.

Observatories
Observatories

1882

The Victoria College Observatory is established in Cobourg, Ontario.

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Instruments

1891

American physicist Albert Abraham Michelson constructs the first interferometer.

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Observatories

1992

UNESCO dedicates a special section to the conservation of the sky and its purity in its "Declaration of the rights for future generations".

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Observatories

2002

More than 95% of stars are no longer visible from large Canadian cities. About two thirds of Canadians can no longer see the Milky Way.

Observatories

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